1. Field of the Disclosure
The invention relates generally to ice bagging systems and specifically to ice bagging machines that have adjustable pinch rollers.
2. Related Technology
Ice is a very useful product for keeping consumables cold to preserve shelf life, or to lower the temperature of beverages for more enjoyable beverage consumption when portability is important. For example, ice may be used to keep beverages cold in a cooler for sporting events or other outings. Often, consumers purchase bags of ice of various weights from retail locations for the above stated reasons.
One method of forming salable bags of ice is to manually load ice into individual bags. Thereafter, the bags of ice are sealed and transported to retail locations. Manually loading ice into bags is time consuming and expensive. Because ice is a common and easily manufactured product, consumers are not willing to pay a high premium for bags of ice when they can make their own ice at home.
Automatic ice bagging systems were developed to enhance efficiency and to increase bagging throughput of ice. Although these automatic ice bagging systems are improvements over manual ice bagging, existing automatic ice bagging systems suffer from inconsistent weights of ice in each bag. Known automatic ice bagging systems calculate the weight of ice in a bag by measuring the volume of ice delivered to the bag. Since ice is assumed to have a constant density, the weight of ice can be calculated by the volume of ice delivered to the bag. However, if the available volume of ice is insufficient to completely fill a bag, the known automatic ice bagging systems must wait for delivery of more ice from a cuber (i.e., an ice making machine). While the known automatic ice bagging systems wait for more ice, the ice already in the bag may begin to melt. As a result, some of the already measured volume of ice is lost, leading to an inaccurate weight of ice in the bag (e.g., less ice than should be in the bag). Known automatic ice bagging systems also suffer from incomplete bag sealing due to moisture on the inside of the bags in the sealing area due to melting ice. Finally, known automatic ice bagging systems are capable of only filling one size bag of ice. In other words, known automatic ice bagging systems can only fill a single size ice bag at a time, for example, a five pound bag.